The Butterfly

The Exploration

While Captain Cohen was monitoring the situation, 

T'Yer, Sam and 3 teams landed on the planet and they immediately understood that the planet was not optimised for the humanoid species. Everything was designed for somewhat burrowing creatures. A senior member of the archaeological team was taking measurements of doors and corridors and they were very short but rooms were longer than any humanoids. Rooms were looking like insect hives.

There was a computer console in the corner of the room. The reason why it looked like a computer console was that to the sensors, it was emitting strong electrical signals. A member of the Tactical team looked at the thing and it contained several layers of electronic circuits and the electrical connection led to something that could be called a computer central processing unit. The console had 2 holes. An anthropologist decided that those burrowing creatures had several longer limbs which they inserted and used similar to a keyboard and mouse, as humans used.

The team was spread out and exploring everywhere of the structure. There were nets like spider webs and small window-like holes by the sides of the structure. The team was trying to understand the reason behind it. However, they had a rough sense of idea now non-humanoid species might be like.

“Sam, please, take a look at this,” said a tactical team member. Sam tried to crawl through the tight corridor of the structure and arrived at a room wwhich had a beautiful view of the mountain from an open window. The tactical team member was kneeling in front of an image. The reason why the team member was kneeling was that the room was very low in height. Sam used a small dust blower to blow out some dust and saw a picture of 3 insects, that looked something like ladybugs from the earth, but bigger. There was a small insect in the middle of 2 bigger insects. There was no doubt that it was a family photo. Sam called a detachment of an archaeological team. Another team also found a small clue, it was an image of a small insect, flying off from the open window to the mountain, while 2 larger insects were standing on the balcony. The entire picture was so surreal, that anyone could simply understand that it was a family photo of parents, watching their offspring, taking their first flight.

The team had to crawl around to move through the structure and for a long time, it was not easy, so they finally left the structure. Their handheld scanner had finally synchronised with the ship computer and finally, a detailed map of the planet’s surface was downloaded.

“It’s amazing, see, there are no roads,” said a member of the archaeological team. She pointed out that although the structures were thousands of years old, they were not worn out, so the species had the technology to build roads, but they didn’t. The final piece of the puzzle was uncovered when a team found a huge opening at the side of the building. That opening had a picture of several insects and a counter, which suggested that the entire city was built with “short-range flight” in mind.

So what happened to them?

While the other team was searching for clues for the mysterious species, the team with the butterfly had a task to land on a planet full of primitive species. The species had a very similar infrastructure style to 16th-century Italy. Nobody knew why, so they were planning for a landing. However, a landing by a small shuttlecraft would be disastrous. After some bickering, the butterfly came up with a solution. It would create a similar-looking drone with a voice box and recorder. The drone will record the language and send it to the ship, meanwhile, the butterfly would take lessons from Tatiana and Alan, the Chief Engineer.

After several minutes, the Butterfly was ready and ready to launch the drone. The entire senior crew met onboard the butterfly where a monitor was there which gave a POV of the drone.

Finally, the butterfly launched the drone towards the night section of the planet. The drone arrived completely naked since the atmospheric entry burned its clothes. After several hours, the drone started to walk toward a village and finally picked up some words and sentences. After another 30 minutes, several sentences were picked up. An anthropologist and a team of linguists were working on the language. Within several hours, the language was completely analysed by the massive computing power of the butterfly and the ingenuity of human linguists.

While walking through the village, the drone saw a group of people, looking toward the drone and speaking something. The team guided the drone toward the group.

“Why are you naked? Where are your clothes?” asked an elderly male.

Everybody was so stunned. With the heat of finding the language, they completely forgot about the clothes.

“Quick, tell, I lost them to robbers,” suggested an anthropologist.

“I lost them to local muggers.” Alan voiced, “Can you spare me some changes?”

“Come,” said an elegantly dressed elderly male. He took the drone to his home, gave a cloth, and said, “You are lying. There are no muggers. But you might be a traveller. Take these clothes, watch what you want to see and go,” he said. Everyone on the ship was desperately trying to find an answer, but the butterfly simply moved the drone. To its logic, it would have been better not to argue. The drone was then guided to another village nearby. A conversation with several villagers revealed that they were a very pacifist species, focused on mindfulness and mental peace. Everything was going up to plan until everything fell apart.